Bfast refutes the Sharman contention that the city is not getting value for what it spends on transit

Special to the Burlington Gazette

By Doug Brown 

March 7th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Bfast – informs the debate on transit to insure the issue of transit service doesn’t get lost in the Official Plan Reviews.

Doug Brown speaking for Burlington Friends and Supporters of Transit (Bfast) responded to our request for a comment on the remarks made by Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman during a meeting of the city’s Audit Committee. where he commented on the number of people who actually use public transit and how much the city spends on transit. A link to that article published earlier this week is at the bottom.

Doug Brown, Bfast

Brown said: “There’s an old saying that some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We hope this is not the case in Councillor Paul Sharman’s call for a “value-for-money audit” of Burlington Transit at the recent meeting of the city’s Audit Committee. The value in transit is this: think of 4.3 million more car trips on Burlington roads every year.

“Many economic analyses have found that each dollar spent on transit creates as much as eight dollars of value. Among them are a number of studies by Atif Kubersi, a world-renowned economist, professor emeritus at McMaster and a resident of Burlington. Prof. Kubersi has studied the economic impact of transit spending in eight or more Ontario municipalities, including Hamilton.

“If the study advocated by Mr. Sharman measured the economic benefits of transit to the community against the city’s expenditure, we would support that; in fact, we have argued for it for years. But spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to determine whether Burlington Transit uses too many pencils is not a good use of our tax money.

Councillor Sharman chose to deflect and muse about “value for money” when he knows that Burlington Transit is well run and serving his constituents.

“Mr. Sharman’s implication that spending on transit is “about probably” the biggest item in the City budget is at best misleading. Much of the transit budget comes from the provincial gas tax and the funding that will replace it, and the federal government contributes to capital expenses like bus purchases. In fact, each Burlington household spends an average of less than $40 a month in municipal taxes to support our growing transit system. That’s less than a tenth of a typical monthly city tax payment.

“Mr Sharman’s longstanding obsession with the transit budget diverted discussion from an important issue identified by the auditor, that “many staff report being at or overcapacity because there are too many tasks with priorities competing for resourcing and time. This leads to heavy workloads, unclear roles and responsibilities, capacity limitations and resistance to changes.”

“Rather than concentrate on the priority risk factors, as outlined in the auditor’s report, Councillor Sharman chose to deflect and muse about “value for money” when he knows that Burlington Transit is well run and serving his constituents while helping to reduce the very traffic congestion he complains about.”

Related new story.

City Auditor didn’t see any merit in the Sharman argument.